Medical Marijuana Card in Florida and Firearms: Still Illegal

I get asked this question all the time, says FFL Gregg Kielma. If you have a current medical marijuana card in Florida, you cannot own a firearm in Florida. I do know if you rescind the card (cancel) it will take approximately one (1) month for the paperwork to be processed through the state. Once the paperwork is completed you can apply for the firearm. The process is as follow, fill out the ATF 4473 form, you pass the background check and indicate you are not addicted to any illegal drugs which currently includes marijuana, and not a convicted felon you’ll be good to go. Times and laws continue to change. Will the use of marijuana eventually be removed from the ATF 4473 form, only time will tell. Take a look below for updated information and the laws regarding medical marijuana.   

The federal law barring illegal drug users from owning firearms has been much in the news lately. It has also been considered by several courts over the past few months, with widely varying rulings on the matter.

A recent appeals court ruling is unlikely to bring much clarity to the situation. On August 20, a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a group of Florida residents who use medical marijuana had plausibly alleged that the law as applied to them violates their right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment.

In the case Florida Commissioner of Agriculture v. U.S., the ruling took issue with the First Amended Complaint (FAC), which didn’t include anything indicating medical marijuana use made any of the individual plaintiffs a threat.  

“Notably, the FAC does not contain any allegations regarding the frequency of Cooper’s and Hansell’s medicinal marijuana use or the amount of marijuana they consume at any given time,” the ruling stated. “Nor does it contain any allegations related to what marijuana-related side effects, if any, Cooper and Hansell experience. The FAC does not indicate whether they have lost any level of control over their use of marijuana, or whether marijuana impairs the regulation of their behavior when they are not using. Indeed, all the FAC alleges regarding their current marijuana use is that they ‘participate in the state medical marijuana program’ because of the ‘benefits [they] obtain from such medical use’ as well as their reliance on not being criminally prosecuted for their use.

“In short, nothing in the FAC indicates that Cooper or Hansell has committed any felony or been convicted of any crime (felony or misdemeanor), let alone that their medical marijuana use makes them dangerous.”

The plaintiffs in the case argued that keeping guns from users of medical marijuana in states that have authorized its use is not consistent with that historical tradition of firearms regulation, the second standard set down in 2022 under the new Bruen doctrine. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), however, argued that barring marijuana users from having guns was consistent with a long-standing tradition of disarming convicted felons or dangerous individuals.